Free Republic

NEW YORK — Franciscan Father Benedict Joseph Groeschel, well-known preacher and a founder of the Community of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, died on Friday at age 81, after an extended illness. “We are deeply saddened by the death of Father Benedict. He was an example to us all,” said Father John-Paul Ouellette, community servant of the Friars of the Renewal, in a statement. “His fidelity and service to the Church and commitment to our Franciscan way of life will have a tremendous impact for generations to come.” Father Groeschel was a founder, author, teacher, preacher and retreat master....

The Franciscan Friars of the Renewal have announced that Father Benedict Groeschel, C.F.R., has died at the age of 81. The co-founder of the order passed away on October 3rd at 11 PM, the vigil of the feast of St. Francis. The Cardinal Newman Society reported on their facebook page earlier this week that Father Groeschel had taken a fall and reinjured the same arm that was hurt in his accident ten years ago. One of his brother friars, Father Glenn Sudano, said that Father Groeschel was in much pain. The Friars were founded in 1987 by Father Groeschel and...

The recent comments regarding clerical sexual abuse of minors made by Father Benedict Groeschel to a news editor of the National Catholic Register should never have been published. In no way do those comments reflect the views of the Register or EWTN. It should have been obvious to the editor that Father Benedict's physical condition and mental clarity have deteriorated and that the comments were completely inconsistent with his life's work and witness. We apologize that these remarks were published and ask for forgiveness for this error. To regular viewers of EWTN, it has been evident for some time that...

Twelve years ago at the Winter Olympics in Nagano, a 17-year-old speedskating prodigy named Kirstin Holum was tapped for future greatness. (snip) The peaceful surrounds of the convent is where Holum, now known as Sister Catherine, devotes her life to religious service as a Franciscan nun. That calling had begun on a trip to Our Lady of Fatima, a holy site in Portugal famed for a series of religious visions that appeared nearly a century ago. It was outside the Fatima basilica where Holum decided that a path of religious dedication, not frozen skating lanes, would be her destiny. (snip)...

By Fr. Benedict Groeschel, CFR from First Things Magazine (June/July 2007) It was a truism—universally accepted until the last decades of the twentieth century—that, wherever the Catholic Church was present, there would be representatives of the religious life: communities of vowed men and women living a frugal common life, praying and working together in Christian service, and offering a witness to the kingdom of God. They belonged to congregations that explicitly took on the responsibility of answering the gospel’s call to leave family, lands, and ownership to follow Jesus Christ. Similar religious communities existed in smaller numbers in the...

A photograph that accompanied the top headline on the Drudge Report at one point Monday looked very familiar to me. It showed two tiny feet peeking through the fingers of a hand, and I thought at first that it was a typical anti-abortion photo that marchers carry at pro-life marches. In fact, it was a photo of Amilia Taylor, born four months ago at 22 weeks gestation, weighing only 10 ounces. She is believed to be the only baby born at less than 23 weeks to have survived. Amilia now weighs four pounds, and doctors are preparing to release...

Response to Brooks Egerton’s Article of March 2, 2003 in the Dallas Morning News The headline of this article claiming that I played down the abuse crisis is an absolute untruth. Anyone reading my books or listening to my talks on this subject knows that this is utterly untrue, that it is a smear. I must respond carefully to the rest of Egerton’s article because of professional confidentiality. I cannot even acknowledge that I spoke to certain people because of their right to privacy. A few obvious points: Egerton says that according to me the sexual abuse scandal is “largely...

Says New Mysteries Will Encourage Reading of GospelsNEW YORK, JUNE 10, 2003 (Zenit.org).- Inspired by John Paul II's declaration of the Year of the Rosary, a Franciscan Friar of the Renewal, Father Benedict Groeschel, has written a book of meditations on all 20 mysteries of the rosary. Father Groeschel, director of the office of spiritual development for the Archdiocese of New York, recently spoke with ZENIT about "The Rosary: Chain of Hope" (Ignatius), which was written during his personal recitations of the rosary. Q: What have the five new luminous mysteries added to the spirituality of the rosary? Father Groeschel:...